ConservativeHome.Com’s Tim Montgomerie has come up with the idea for a Conservative Movement Awards ceremony to be held on November 13 in London. George Osborne is to be the keynote speaker at the event.

Even on ConservativeHome itself there is some disquiet about some of the suggested recipients – MigrationWatch and Cornerstone in particular.

Eyebrows would be raised in particular if Cornerstone did win the “One to Watch” Award ahead of the widely supported Taxpayer’s Alliance. The credibility of the award if Cornerstone won would be in question. The group is popularly known as “Tombstone” and is considered to be the organised last gasp of the of the anti-modernisers with little support across the Conservative party.

Some months ago Tim Montgomerie privately offered to redesign and manage the Tombstone website for free to make it much more user-friendly and attractive. As it stands the paleo-Conservatives still have a terribly old-fashioned looking website. Tim and his deputy Sam Coates have attended Cornerstone steering committee meetings – indeed it was Tim who suggested that they rename the new website www.ToryCornerstone.com. It would look very odd if one website run by Tim awarded another website run by Tim a prize.